Help

No account yet?
Registering is free, easy, and private.
Discuss in the forum, contribute to the Encyclopedia, build your own MyAnime lists, and more.

Answerman

What Was A "MovieCD"?

by Justin Sevakis, Aug 21st 2017

Anonymous asked:

I was in a thrift store the other day and found a copy of this Cyber City OEDO "MovieCD". What was this format? Was it at all successful? How many different formats over the years has anime been released on?

MovieCD was a short-lived predecessor to DVD that was aimed at PC users back when full-screen, full-motion video was a new, novel idea. And a computer being able to play back video was a big deal -- I have a strong memory of one of these discs being prominently displayed at a CompUSA store growing up.

Of course, by today's standards a MovieCD is so lame that it barely registers as a thing. It was just a standard CD-ROM with an .AVI file on it, as well as video player software. The .AVI file was very low resolution by today's standards -- only 320 x 236 -- and used a proprietary video compression technology (codec, for you nerds out there) called MotionPixels. It would play reliably on any 486 machine with a 2x CD-ROM drive, and the software was compatible with Windows 3.1 and Windows 95/98. (It wouldn't work on a Mac.)

Software company Sirius Publishing exclusively produced a pretty decent library of titles in the format, most of which were aimed at young males who were thought to be primary computer users in that era. And since this was also the era of the VHS anime boom, Sirius licensed several popular titles from Manga Video and from Central Park Media: in addition to Cyber City Oedo 808, Dominion Tank Police, Macross Plus, Genocyber, Ghost in the Shell, New Dominion Tank Police, Ninja Scroll and Urotsukidoji III: Return of the Overfiend all made appearances in the format. Non-anime titles included a few mainstream movies (mostly from New Line Pictures), some Playboy videos, some Best of SNL discs, and a handful of American cartoons like Cabbage Patch Kids.

MovieCDs were available in several major software retailers for a number of years, and a few discs sold fairly well. The format had a very limited utility: without any available set-top players, it was impossible to play these discs back on a TV. Back then, trying to output your computer's display through analog video cables was a bigger pain in the butt than it was worth to most people, and the quality was actually worse than VHS. MovieCD was never more than a curiosity for nerds who had to do EVERYTHING on a computer.

Another, more standards-based format, known as VideoCD, was exploding in Asia around this time, but it wasn't ever much of a thing in the US, so there were still a few years there where weird computer-based video formats like MovieCD were the only way to buy digital video. But then the much higher quality (and TV-compatible) DVD format came along in 1997 and that was that. A few years later, the MovieCD format died along with its owner, Sirius Publishing.

If you should happen upon a MovieCD again, you should be able to play it with most open-source video player apps, like VLC or MPlayer. I wouldn't attempt to run any of the included software in a modern PC, however.

Amusingly, MovieCD wasn't the only funky CD-ROM video format that got anime releases in that era. Software Sculptors started off licensing anime from Central Park Media, AnimEigo and Viz to create video clip screensavers from shows like Ranma 1/2, Project A-ko and Bubblegum Crisis. The screensavers were pretty unremarkable, featuring no actual artwork or custom animation, but just tiny square clips of fuzzy digitized video that would appear in random parts of your screen. The company later went on to release anime themselves and eventually got absorbed into Central Park Media. Most of its founders left to start Media Blasters not long after.

Somewhere in that history, they also released a handful of full anime on CD-ROM as QuickTime .MOV files (using Cinepak compression). These looked slightly worse than MovieCDs, but could play on both Windows and Mac platforms. Titles like Record of Lodoss War, Metal Fighters Miku, Detonator Orgun and a few other popular CPM titles got CD-ROM releases, but none sold very well that way. Years later, while I was at CPM, we were still trying to get rid of those discs at conventions.

UPDATE 1: Thanks to CatSword who pointed out that I missed a few kids' titles in the weird Tiger Electronics VideoNow disc format, as well as pajmo9 who mentioned that Gundam Thunderbolt has been released in UHD (4K) Blu-ray. Also, WingKing and Cerceaux mentioned that ADV put out a few promotional discs as 3" MiniDVDs, although it's debatable whether that counts as a separate format.

Do YOU have a question for the Answerman?

We want your questions! Send in as many or as often as you like. We can only pick three questions a week (and unfortunately I don't have ALL the answers) so if you haven't been chosen, don't be discouraged, and keep on sending.

Justin Sevakis has worked in the anime business for over 20 years. He's the original founder of Anime News Network, and owner of the video production company MediaOCD. You can follow him on Twitter at @worldofcrap.

Fans of the new Gegege no Kitaro reboot should be sure to check out this fascinating volume of stories that inspired many of the remake's best episodes. Rebecca Silverman has the details.― While a new volume of Drawn&Quarterly's curated collection of stories from Shigeru Mizuki's GeGeGe no Kitaro series is always interesting, this particular book, Kitaro's Yokai Battles, may be of particular interes...

OTAQUEST LIVE is returning to Los Angeles on July 3, and some of Japan's biggest names in music are coming along for the ride!― OTAQUEST LIVE is returning to Los Angeles on July 3, 2019 and some of Japan's biggest names in music are coming along for the ride! This one-night-only event highlights a stacked lineup the likes of which won't be found anywhere in the world, not even in Japan! You won't w...

Heidi takes a deeper look at the latest Attack on Titan game - plus George RR Martin's Dark Souls, shooter news, and much more!― Sometimes you have a week that's just bursting with big news about big games, and other weeks you have a lot of news that, while interesting, doesn't particularly lend itself well to extended discussion. This week, we've got a lot of the latter: there's cool news and rumor...

Netflix delivers another CG mecha action series this season with Revisions. Nick and Andy find out if this time-warping sci fi adventure is worth checking out.― Netflix delivers another CG mecha action series this season with Revisions. This week, Nick and Andy find out if this time-warping sci fi adventure is worth checking out. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in t...

This controversial mecha series from A-1 Pictures and Studio Trigger has finally arrived in a special edition loaded with extras. Theron Martin has the details in our full review.― This 24-episode original anime production debuted in the winter 2018 and quickly became one of the most controversial titles of the last couple years. In this case, the controversy was not over blatantly objectionable con...

In a country with famously strict gun laws, how exactly does hunting for sport work? Justin digs in.― Sarah asked: A few months ago I was watching Flying Witch and it had a gag where the uncle sees a pheasant and tries to catch it with his bare hands. Originally I thought getting a gun would be a lot quicker, but then I remembered Japanese gun laws are much stricter. I was wondering if there is a d...

Dates, cities, and more information revealed!― In 2018, to commemorate the release of Dragon Ball Super: BROLY, the ground-breaking “DRAGON BALL NORTH AMERICA TOUR” visited seven cities across the United States and Canada. Featuring a life-sized replica of the “World Martial Arts Tournament” (“Tenkaichi Budokai”), the booth appeared in the news as North America was engulfed in Dragon Ball fever. Bu...

Be careful what you wish for, because this short series proves that having all your favorite waifu figurines come to life might not be a dream come true. Micchy and Steve dive headfirst into some truly amazing trash.― Be careful what you wish for, because Amazing Stranger proves that having all your favorite waifu figurines come to life might not be a dream come true. This week, Micchy and Steve di...

This second film adapts Made in Abyss' most devastating material to beautiful effect while setting up new details for a continuation. Theron Martin has the details in our full review.― Wandering Twilight, the compilation film that covers episodes 9-13 of the Made in Abyss TV series, had its U.S. debut at Anime Central, complete with the attendance of director Masayuki Kojima, music director Kevin Pe...